If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Hybrid View

Unpopular opinions about Pokemon manga

One of my favorite topics to discuss on message boards is unpopular opinions. I find it so interesting to read opinions or viewpoints that are a little different from what you usually see, especially since I tend to have quite a few of them myself. On another forum I go to, these types of threads are always very popular and a lot of fun, and since I haven't seen anything like it here in the manga section, I figured I'd start it myself.

One thing about these kinds of threads though is that they sometimes tend to get heated and, if worse comes to worst, eventually closed since people can't be mature or respectful when it comes to seeing an unpopular opinion they completely disagree with, I guess. It's one thing to respectfully disagree, it's another thing to be rude or bash needlessly. Just be respectful, use common sense, obey the speed limit and all those nice things, and we shouldn't have a problem.

Here's a few of mine to start things off with:
1. The boy's Blue and the girl's Green. Yay for alliteration. I know why people prefer the Japanese names, it has to do with the colors of their eyes in a manga that's printed in black and white or whatever, but for me? All of the books that I own and paid good money for are in English, since I can't read or speak a lick of Japanese, so I tend to favor the English names for every character Viz and Chuang Yi were so nice to convenience me with. That goes for all other characters with more than one name as well, ftr. It's Sird, not Saque or Stork or Villainousmarysue or whatever the heck people call her.
2. I can't say I really care for a lot of these nicknames our heroes like to give to their Pokemon. Some I like, such as Gold's (Aibo and Polibo are so much fun to say) and Ruby's, others I just facepalm at such as Red's or Green's. It's probably because I'm not a nicknamer myself (I never nickname my Pokes in the games), but I just prefer to call the Pokemon by their actual names.
3. I don't really know how popular Black is, but he's one of my favorite characters in the manga. And since I've seen a few people around the web call him an idiot or whatever (despite the fact that he's very well educated and studies at a library regularly), I thought it was worth a mention here. I'm glad that we finally have another male character who wants to win all of the badges and challenge the Pokemon League as well. There hadn't been one prior since, you know, Red.
4. Overall, I thought the GSC chapter of the manga was very mediocre. I'm amazed at how popular it seems to be, since I saw a poll on this very site at some point in the past where it was voted in first place. But it's by far my least favorite saga. There are many reasons for this, most of which I'm not gonna bore you with, but a few of them are:
-The Masked Man was a lame and stereotypical villain that didn't interest me at all, and his secret identity was a character I really like in the games, but was absolutely destroyed in the manga.
-One of my favorite characters (Gold) was written out of his own saga about a third of the way through for absolutely no reason. Which made me hate the boring stereotypical bad guy even more.
-Gold's boring replacement was boring.
-The sideplot with Suicune was too long, too predictable, and not entertaining in the slightest.
-The artwork for the first two volumes was terrible. All due respect to Ms. Mato, I know of her illness and that's why it wasn't that good and I'm glad she's since recovered, but it's still not an excuse for the shoddy artwork. Or at least it isn't for me. The artwork is half of the entertainment, after all. It needs to look its best.
-I wrote a pretty decently sized paragraph on the climax, but I ended up deleting it because it was too negative. Don't want to start a potential argument as soon as I post the thread. I'll post it later, though.

I have a few more, but this is getting too long so I'm gonna stop right now. Plus I'm curious to hear what other people have to say.

Also note that while I only mentioned Pokemon Adventures, since it's the only manga I read, you can talk about any Pokemon manga here if you so choose.

I have to agree with you on how the GSC arc was kinda boring. And I didnt really like Crystal in the GSC arc. Volume 10 was boring to me for some reason. I was bored til Gold and Silver came back. But I dont think she's all that bad. Imo the RS and DP arc are way better. I just liked those better for some reason...

I grew up with Pokémon. And I cherish and love it. I watched every episode from the very first and I've read all of viz's pokespe translations out so far. And i first played the games starting from Pokémon Sapphire. And my favorite anime characters are Ash's female traveling companions and my favorite Pokespe characters are Sapphire and Platinum.

PM me for 3DS FC

If you rooted for Dawn during A Grand Fight For Winning even though you knew she'd lose, then copy and paste this in your signature.

If you think the world should be a better place for everyone put this in you sig. (started by Mewmie the shiny Mew)

I treat my Pokemon like family. Copy and Paste this in your sig if you do too. Started by legolover8.

1. N. Yes N is displayed as a Sosiopathic person here and people always mock him. I mean he is still awesome. No, Better than that Way too awesome. And some people discusted with him. I mean yeah he followed Pokemon Liberation Ideal as Lance did many years ago but to say that I think Lance had an evil laugh. That is not idealistic at all but N is displayed as a very great person who had a different point of view and it's like People really need to repaired their point of view

2. Yellow as an OC is way too much overated and Emerald as an Oc is way too much underated

Last edited by Ludger; 12th July 2012 at 10:28 AM.

Credit for Spockisnotimpressed's Tumblr

If you think the world should be a better place for everyone put this in you sig. (started by Mewmie the shiny Mew)

My opinions:
1. I don't like the RS arc. At all. I never ever liked Ruby. It's something about his character, I guess. I absolutely prefer Sapphire more than him.
2. The Yellow arc was bland and uninteresting. I'm sorry but I do not quite understand Yellow's popularity.
3. Am I the only one who doesn't like the BW arc?

imo, all the chapters that are the starters of the generation besides RGB (so like GSC, RS, and DP) are very uninteresting and long and tedious for me because they're simply new adventures and character developments. That is, until it gets to the point where connections to previous chapters are made. That's when it gets interesting. Well, maybe DP is an exception. That chapter was actually kind of interesting and fun. RS chapter was the worst for me cuz well the whole chapter is about Hoenn only and no ties are made in the chapter at all.

Oh man, oh man. It'll be too easy to go all out, but I don't think I should. I don't want to create too many walls of text....

I agree with everyone else that GSC arc sucked. It had some good ideas in them, but all those ideas are horribly written and mashed together (I'm guessing due to the lack of time). It's like Digimon Adventure 02.

Originally Posted by pika09

Well, this is gonna be fun.

My opinions:
1. I don't like the RS arc. At all. I never ever liked Ruby. It's something about his character, I guess. I absolutely prefer Sapphire more than him.
2. The Yellow arc was bland and uninteresting. I'm sorry but I do not quite understand Yellow's popularity.
3. Am I the only one who doesn't like the BW arc?

#2: I'm glad to see I'm not the only one that disliked the Yellow arc. I never understood how people like the Yellow arc or the character, who is easily one of the worse characters in PokeSpe. The Y arc is the arc I hate the most; what a waste of an arc.

#3: I say give it time for the volumes to come out. May I ask why you don't like it?

Originally Posted by Weedy Spyze

But in Adventures, they made him too much of a sociopath and got rid of his naievity and somewhat childish charm, and just went with the 'creepy' aspect of his character, making him somewhat one-dimensional.

A lot of this has to do with people's desire to pair her with Red, which I hate and never do I want to see that pairing made canon. In fact, I think Yellow's character should just be retired entirely. Her storyline is finished, and I can't see her being relevant for the plot ever again without it feeling somewhat contrived (like her role in releasing the legendary beasts in GSC).

That actually makes me more interested in N. We don't have enough actually creepy characters that aren't completely "evil". But, I'll withhold judgement until I read how he's written.

That may be one of the only things we will ever completely agree with. I can't fathom how that pairing will ever be interesting. I would be pretty pissed if it became canon. (Calling it: she'll be the important piece to defeat Saque and it'll bring her out of retirement.)

As for Mitsuru, I can see why he didn't become a Dexholder (he was created before Emerald was released, I think?), but it's still a dang shame. He's one of the less than five best written characters Kusaka has done and I was way more interested in seeing him grow than hear Emerald's woes.

Last edited by Evilchibi_pichu; 13th July 2012 at 5:42 AM.

90% of pokemon fans hate/dislike Pikachu, if you are one of the 10% who don't, copy and paste this in your signature (started by Rukario907) ~Treasure Fighter (Kiyomaro's Theme)~ and Fuji Syuusuke ~ClaimedMy Journey Log of Pokemon WhiteWarning: General jerkiness and sarcasm abound. Of course, spoilers as well.

My opinions:
1. I don't like the RS arc. At all. I never ever liked Ruby. It's something about his character, I guess. I absolutely prefer Sapphire more than him.
2. The Yellow arc was bland and uninteresting. I'm sorry but I do not quite understand Yellow's popularity.
3. Am I the only one who doesn't like the BW arc?

Personally, I don't like the character Yellow that much but I liked yellow arc because they twisted it and made the E4 evil villains. And furthermore, each of them were nicely fleshed out. Due to them being villains they are probably the ONLY E4s with extra screen time XD Overally, I like yellow arc because the E4s made it awesome.

Originally Posted by matt0044

For Yellow, her talking to Pokemon power alone would've been fine but her other powers were pretty overkill. I don't hate her but I feel like she could've been better handled. Her arc was pretty hit and miss for me.

In what ways was yellow's powers an overkill...? So she could talk to pokemon and heal them and that's pretty much it wasn't it? Yellow, as far as it goes, is probably the weakest battler among all the dex holders. Yellow defeating lance was a little wth, but I see it more as Yellow+ Red,Blue,Green defeating Lance together. It was presented in a pretty vague manner but I think that was how it was supposed to be. Don' t think Pika can conjured a mega volt whenever he wants to. The level boosting part is a little overboard but I never saw yellow benefiting that much from it.

Emerald arc was a little band for my taste. The only thing I enjoyed there was Ruby and Sapphire's interactions with Emerald. And I never got over the fact that they could have let Wally be the third dex holder.

I actually like GSC arc because it isnt all about battling gym leaders again. All the suicune thing, the mini-Crystal arc (which was delightfully refreshing) all comes together nicely for me.... the only down part was the VILLAIN. That was the worse villain thus far =_= I like the way Crystal was portrayed, as a serious pro kind of character. And the development was nicely done as well. But it wold have been better though if she was really really good. Not just at capturing but at battling too. In the Crystal arc we can see that Crystal is good at using the surrounding/ situation to her advantage, and being able to capture pokemon so effectively probably also meant that Crystal has great control in most of her battles. This could be applied to battles as well. I don't need Crystal to be super badass in battles but somehow it feels that she just isn't good enough even though she was pretty good in the mini Crystal arc. And that kind of spoils Crystal for me though she remains one of my fave female characters in Pokemon special.

Lastly, I don't really like how Lance was drawn in HGSS arc... He looks so.... different. He could have resembled his RCS self more.

What this sounds like fun, I guess I'll join in on it. In my opinion, I like Pokespe and like a majority of characters and their interactions with the Pokemon world. I also have to praise the story and I like how it all connected and nothing is forgotten. Everything leads up to something. I like how the creators pay attention to detail. I also like how tries to emulate the fun and playability of the games. However, I do have so nitpicks though. Some times many of the Pokemon are relegated to mere MacGuffins. More after the break.

Why Prof Oak is so overated ?. I don't like that person on Adventures(Being blamed Gold and I take that Mock seriously because I think that Gold is just like me being the least trusted). And why Crystal didn't became Prof Elm Assistant?

Credit for Spockisnotimpressed's Tumblr

If you think the world should be a better place for everyone put this in you sig. (started by Mewmie the shiny Mew)

I'm happy to see all of the responses so far. In regards to the BW chapter, I really don't know what's popular and what's not when it comes to that arc, because I hardly ever see it discussed on the internet. I will say though that I don't really like N's portrayal in the manga, however. Don't get me wrong, he is an excellent character in the games. Probably the best character in the franchise when it comes to background and development. But in Adventures, they made him too much of a sociopath and got rid of his naievity and somewhat childish charm, and just went with the 'creepy' aspect of his character, making him somewhat one-dimensional. Not to mention in his first appearance he curbstomped Black in battle, and from what I've read (I haven't gotten the new volume yet) Gigi chose to go with N because he'd help her realize her battle potential. But wait...isn't this the guy who's supposed to hate and be completely against battling? It all just makes no sense when you really stop to think about it. I mean I know the manga is free to take liberties when it comes to the characters, they certainly have in the past, but that doesn't mean I have to like certain change. And if I'm missing a specific plot point here or whatever please let me know.

A few more of my own to add, somewhat bouncing off what others have said:
-I like how Adventures has so many different main characters and so many different story arcs. I like how after one character's story ends, a new character's story begins. It keeps things fresh and exciting. I also don't really care if a story arc has callbacks to a previous one, either. It's nice to see the older heroes make cameos every now and then (for the most part), but at the end of the day I think they're irrelevant. The R/S, D/P, and B/W arcs all stand perfectly fine on their own two feet without callbacks to previous adventures. They are not needed.
-For the most part, I find myself liking newer manga characters more than older ones. Of the first two generation dexholders, the only ones I'm really a fan of are Red and Gold. Whereas I love the entire Sinnoh dex trio, as well as both Black and White. I like all five of them much more than any of the other Kanto/Johto dex holders. To be honest, I find most of the older guys uninteresting. I find that Kusaka has done a much better job of flashing out character personalities and development as time has gone on (getting better as a writer, in other words), and some of the older characters just got the short end of the stick with one-dimensional personalities. Like Blue and Crystal. They're boring. What's to them other than being "serious" and Crystal's capture shtick?
-The Diamond & Pearl arc was fantastic from beginning to end. The Sinnoh trio were all charming and entertaining in their own ways, and they all had wonderful chemistry with each other. I'm glad that we finally had the dexholders travelling together for once, and I think it's maddening how it took four generations for the manga to do that. It allowed for much more character development and interactions, something I love to see in the manga. And the silliness and general lightheartedness of the earlier rounds in the arc never failed to put a smile on my face. It was just fun to read. The manga doesn't have to be all serious all the time, you know.
-I also think Yellow is overrated as a character to some degree. I don't dislike her, but do I think she merits a lot of her popularity? No. A lot of this has to do with people's desire to pair her with Red, which I hate and never do I want to see that pairing made canon. In fact, I think Yellow's character should just be retired entirely. Her storyline is finished, and I can't see her being relevant for the plot ever again without it feeling somewhat contrived (like her role in releasing the legendary beasts in GSC).
-Speaking of pairings, or shippings as the fanbase likes to call them, I do not like most of the more popular ones, like the Gold/Crystal pairing. I cannot see why either of them would be willing to spend the rest of their days with the other one, their personalities are way too different. They have no compatibility. Thank god this pairing could not be more unofficial.
-I would write about Emerald some, but not liking him is actually a popular opinion fortunately so it doesn't really have a place in this thread. Maybe some other time.

Unpopular opinions? Hmm. Well I guess I would start for the most part with not being a huge fan of the Emerald arc. Don't get me wrong I'm one of the few people on this forum that actually like Emerald himself, just not the arc. Other then the Dexholder reunion it was kinda meh for me. And even the Dexholder reunion we didn't get to see Red, Yellow, Green, Blue, and Silver interact much with Ruby, Sapphire, or even Emerald. Which is why in the future I hope Dexholder reunions if we even get anymore become more like a social get togethers at the end of chapters because there are plenty of characters I'd love to see just relax, hang out, bound, and become real friends. Really Gold and Crystal are the only ones who feel like true friends to the Kanto and Hoenn gangs.

I would have to agree on the Green and Blue name thing but it's really not the eyes that do it for me when I like at them, it's just how I view them. I rarely call the girl Green and the guy Blue. The girl always looked like a Blue to me hence why I always call her Blue and the guy Green. Other then them I call everyone else by their Viz/CY names when they get them.

Finally my real nitpick, though somewhat understandable is how our last two chapters were rushed. Platinum and HGSS. If what people say about HGSS is true and it's next volume is it's last I will be sadly disappointed. HGSS could have been the best chapter ever if done right. With Platinum we didn't even get to see Palmer battle, Flint and Volkner's roles should have been actually important in volume 40, and I'm curious what will happen with Giratina...though I'm sure that could be answered in another arc, like a DP remake arc.

What opinion do I have that is unpopular... The GSC arc.
It's a huge mess. Too many storylines to follow. I had to read it twice before moving on to RS, that's how confusing it was. I don't dislike Crystal, but she had the spotlight for too long. Suicune had too much panel time as well. They could've distributed Suicune's panel time with the other Legendary Beasts, Raikou and Entei. They could have done that or just cut those parts out. How many completely irrelevant characters appeared because of seeing Suicune challenging the Gym Leaders? A lot of them.
Also, some of the Gym Leaders were too much worked on with no reason at all, for example Janine. All we know about her is that she was desperate about Koga being missing, and what came out of that? Nothing.
And the climax... Oh, god, what a mess. I guess it does make kind of sense (a messy arc's climax being a big mess), but come on! Let me just tell you how much was going on at the same time: Misty, Blaine and Surge battling the Mask of Ice, Blue and Silver battling Will and Karen, some of the Gym Leaders battling the Rocket Grunts on the train and three of them (only remember Green) trying to stop the train from crashing, as well as Yellow being attacked by Rocket Grunts at the Day-care. See? Too many lines to follow! Agh!

Contact me here or in those sites to keep me motivated for this fic. Several chapters are already concluded, but there's still a LONG way to go. I want to be sure I'll finish this thing before I start publishing it.

What opinion do I have that is unpopular... The GSC arc.
It's a huge mess. Too many storylines to follow. I had to read it twice before moving on to RS, that's how confusing it was. I don't dislike Crystal, but she had the spotlight for too long. Suicune had too much panel time as well. They could've distributed Suicune's panel time with the other Legendary Beasts, Raikou and Entei. They could have done that or just cut those parts out. How many completely irrelevant characters appeared because of seeing Suicune challenging the Gym Leaders? A lot of them.
Also, some of the Gym Leaders were too much worked on with no reason at all, for example Janine. All we know about her is that she was desperate about Koga being missing, and what came out of that? Nothing.
And the climax... Oh, god, what a mess. I guess it does make kind of sense (a messy arc's climax being a big mess), but come on! Let me just tell you how much was going on at the same time: Misty, Blaine and Surge battling the Mask of Ice, Blue and Silver battling Will and Karen, some of the Gym Leaders battling the Rocket Grunts on the train and three of them (only remember Green) trying to stop the train from crashing, as well as Yellow being attacked by Rocket Grunts at the Day-care. See? Too many lines to follow! Agh!

Wait, what? I guess that what you're saying is that RS also had a lot going on. Well, that might be true, but we didn't have five things happening at the same time. We had a constant of seeing two adventures. Two is smaller than five. I can keep track of two storylines, but five? I managed to do it, but it was way too confusing to get it in my first read. So, even though the way of showing the plot is similar, it isn't nearly as confusing.

Contact me here or in those sites to keep me motivated for this fic. Several chapters are already concluded, but there's still a LONG way to go. I want to be sure I'll finish this thing before I start publishing it.

What opinion do I have that is unpopular... The GSC arc.
It's a huge mess. Too many storylines to follow. I had to read it twice before moving on to RS, that's how confusing it was. I don't dislike Crystal, but she had the spotlight for too long. Suicune had too much panel time as well. They could've distributed Suicune's panel time with the other Legendary Beasts, Raikou and Entei. They could have done that or just cut those parts out. How many completely irrelevant characters appeared because of seeing Suicune challenging the Gym Leaders? A lot of them.
Also, some of the Gym Leaders were too much worked on with no reason at all, for example Janine. All we know about her is that she was desperate about Koga being missing, and what came out of that? Nothing.
And the climax... Oh, god, what a mess. I guess it does make kind of sense (a messy arc's climax being a big mess), but come on! Let me just tell you how much was going on at the same time: Misty, Blaine and Surge battling the Mask of Ice, Blue and Silver battling Will and Karen, some of the Gym Leaders battling the Rocket Grunts on the train and three of them (only remember Green) trying to stop the train from crashing, as well as Yellow being attacked by Rocket Grunts at the Day-care. See? Too many lines to follow! Agh!

I actually agree about the Suicune business. Though I didn't mind it very much, the whole Suicune going around challenging Gym Leaders was really weird even if there were some really creative ways to use Pokemon in those battles it was like kinda random and basically a way to showcase the Gym Leaders since nobody was badge collecting, Suicune looking for a partner. Then they have Crystal clearly wanting to catch it, she fails and Suicune goes to Misty. Then Misty gets hurt so Suicune goes to it's second choice, Crystal. I don't know about you, but it kinda made Crystal feel like second best...well because she was, but you build all this Suicune nonsense around Crystal wanting to catch it and then it turns out it chooses Misty due to her Water Pokemon background and junk, and then she gets hurt so it's like Suicune was forced to partner with Crystal. And they couldn't split the attention between it, Entei, and Raikou? Those two barely got to do to much. It's minor but I always felt Crystal got the "second best" treatment there. Why not have Suicune see Misty as the obvious choice but ultimately goes with Crystal because of her desire to want to fight along side it?

I actually agree about the Suicune business. Though I didn't mind it very much, the whole Suicune going around challenging Gym Leaders was really weird even if there were some really creative ways to use Pokemon in those battles it was like kinda random and basically a way to showcase the Gym Leaders since nobody was badge collecting, Suicune looking for a partner. Then they have Crystal clearly wanting to catch it, she fails and Suicune goes to Misty. Then Misty gets hurt so Suicune goes to it's second choice, Crystal. I don't know about you, but it kinda made Crystal feel like second best...well because she was, but you build all this Suicune nonsense around Crystal wanting to catch it and then it turns out it chooses Misty due to her Water Pokemon background and junk, and then she gets hurt so it's like Suicune was forced to partner with Crystal. And they couldn't split the attention between it, Entei, and Raikou? Those two barely got to do to much. It's minor but I always felt Crystal got the "second best" treatment there. Why not have Suicune see Misty as the obvious choice but ultimately goes with Crystal because of her desire to want to fight along side it?

Well, you're totally right. I never thought of it that way, but it feel like Crystal was a 'second'. But I guess that if you bear in mind that Suicune held onto Crystal earring all the time since their battle, you could say that Suicune did choose Crystal way before finding Misty. And Misty also said that she knew all along that she wouldn't be Suicune's final partner.

Contact me here or in those sites to keep me motivated for this fic. Several chapters are already concluded, but there's still a LONG way to go. I want to be sure I'll finish this thing before I start publishing it.

Well, you're totally right. I never thought of it that way, but it feel like Crystal was a 'second'. But I guess that if you bear in mind that Suicune held onto Crystal earring all the time since their battle, you could say that Suicune did choose Crystal way before finding Misty. And Misty also said that she knew all along that she wouldn't be Suicune's final partner.

Very true, I guess I was just making a little mini rant. And before volume 14 it just felt like Crystal's was being cheated out of her Suicune that she wanted so much, even if I enjoyed her as Gold's "prissy" sidekick during the gap to get Suicune, I did like that Suicune at least kept her earring after their battle so that it didn't just forget her.

^ I actually am the complete opposite of you on the Emerald arc. I hated Emerald himself with the fire of a thousand suns, but the arc itself was alright. Put Wally in Emerald's spot and it would've been perfect. And the reason Red and the others didn't have much of a role is because there really wasn't a role for any of them to be had other than to revive them. Emerald was a Hoenn game, and the Kanto characters had their time in the FRLG arc. Even with Gold and Crystal, they only showed up in the last volume and really only provided support. Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald were the characters that had most of the screen time and were the main characters of the arc.

A Blue doesn't look like anything. That meant the name Blue worked for me better then calling her Green.

Well whatever floats your boat I guess. I meant to mention this in my first post but I ended up forgetting, but I think the English names fit them better personally. Blue is a calming color, which is fitting for a calm and serious character like Boy!Blue. While green is a more lively color, which suits Girl!Green and her lively personality. Of course, all of the characters were just name after the games anyway, so none of this really even matters at the end of the day. But it's just something interesting to think about for me.

Shoot, I meant to add a new unpopular opinion, but I forgot what it was.

Oh, and I was forgetting. My favorite shipping. I guess not much people even remember that this pairing exists, they're too much caught up in SpecialShipping and OldRivalShipping and stuff like that. Well, anyway, my favorite shipping is PikaxChuchu. I have good intuition don't I?

Contact me here or in those sites to keep me motivated for this fic. Several chapters are already concluded, but there's still a LONG way to go. I want to be sure I'll finish this thing before I start publishing it.

What opinion do I have that is unpopular... The GSC arc.
It's a huge mess. Too many storylines to follow. I had to read it twice before moving on to RS, that's how confusing it was. I don't dislike Crystal, but she had the spotlight for too long. Suicune had too much panel time as well. They could've distributed Suicune's panel time with the other Legendary Beasts, Raikou and Entei. They could have done that or just cut those parts out. How many completely irrelevant characters appeared because of seeing Suicune challenging the Gym Leaders? A lot of them.
Also, some of the Gym Leaders were too much worked on with no reason at all, for example Janine. All we know about her is that she was desperate about Koga being missing, and what came out of that? Nothing.
And the climax... Oh, god, what a mess. I guess it does make kind of sense (a messy arc's climax being a big mess), but come on! Let me just tell you how much was going on at the same time: Misty, Blaine and Surge battling the Mask of Ice, Blue and Silver battling Will and Karen, some of the Gym Leaders battling the Rocket Grunts on the train and three of them (only remember Green) trying to stop the train from crashing, as well as Yellow being attacked by Rocket Grunts at the Day-care. See? Too many lines to follow! Agh!

I guess I wouldn't have minded the Crystal spotlight if it had lasted for only one volume instead of two. Really, Crystal and Eusine were around the Olivine City area at the end of volume 10 anyway. How about instead of chasing Suicune back towards Ecruteak and Mt. Mortar, he leads them to Whirl Islands instead, possibly with the intention of helping them find and help Gold and Silver? Really, those two were supposedly main characters of the arc, yet the treatment they got in those two volumes was disgusting. Nobody in-story even pretended they existed for most of it, and the manga itself even went completely out of its way to NOT mention or show them whatsoever. I mean, at least when it happened to Red, we had everyone in Kanto worrying over him, and he wasn't even the hero of the Yellow arc anyway. But Gold and Silver WERE two of the heroes of the GSC arc, and yet they were just left to rot! That is, until Surge decided to go looking for them. Isn't it hilarious how Surge, a former villain, was more concerned about Gold's well-being than freaking Professor Oak? I think it's hilarious. Oak was never worried that he hadn't heard from Red for a month during the Yellow chapter, either. Silly senile old man. Methinks PokeNation needs to crack down on its child safety laws.

And lol, you actually forgot some of the plotlines. How about Bill and Daisy? Or Gold chasing the Masked Man to Ilex Forest? Or the freaking Radio Director and whatever the heck he was doing at the time. Seriously, why should I care what such an insignificant character with no name is doing, especially when he's not doing anything another character could've just as easily given to the storyline? Useless. My favorite (except not) part though was when Gold destroyed the Masked Man's mask. We then immediately turn to Whitney and Morty figuring out his identity on their own. Then we switch to Crystal, Eusine, Misty and co. and whatever they were doing at the time (I can't remember), then to possibly something else, and THEN it's revealed to us that Pryce was the Masked Man, as if it was so hard to figure out anyway given the large number of clues thrown at us beforehand.

So that's pretty much my earlier GSC climax rant condensed down. On a more positive note, I did enjoy the gym leader tournament. I just wish Gold and Crystal had had more panel time during that part of the arc.

Originally Posted by Platinum fan.

Why not have Suicune see Misty as the obvious choice but ultimately goes with Crystal because of her desire to want to fight along side it?

That would've been interesting.

Originally Posted by TomNamikaze

Wait, what? I guess that what you're saying is that RS also had a lot going on. Well, that might be true, but we didn't have five things happening at the same time. We had a constant of seeing two adventures. Two is smaller than five. I can keep track of two storylines, but five? I managed to do it, but it was way too confusing to get it in my first read. So, even though the way of showing the plot is similar, it isn't nearly as confusing.

Yeah, RS had a lot of characters running around as well, but I never thought that Ruby and Sapphire's screen time was really sacrificed for it, unlike the Johto gang in their arc. So it doesn't annoy me nearly as much...or at all, actually. Really my only beef with characters in the RS arc was Tate and Liza's very minor roles. They should've been battling Groudon and Kyogre with all of the other gym leaders imo, instead of being shipped off to Mirage Island with Juan (although I did like his role ftr).

I guess I wouldn't have minded the Crystal spotlight if it had lasted for only one volume instead of two. Really, Crystal and Eusine were around the Olivine City area at the end of volume 10 anyway. How about instead of chasing Suicune back towards Ecruteak and Mt. Mortar, he leads them to Whirl Islands instead, possibly with the intention of helping them find and help Gold and Silver? Really, those two were supposedly main characters of the arc, yet the treatment they got in those two volumes was disgusting. Nobody in-story even pretended they existed for most of it, and the manga itself even went completely out of its way to NOT mention or show them whatsoever. I mean, at least when it happened to Red, we had everyone in Kanto worrying over him, and he wasn't even the hero of the Yellow arc anyway. But Gold and Silver WERE two of the heroes of the GSC arc, and yet they were just left to rot! That is, until Surge decided to go looking for them. Isn't it hilarious how Surge, a former villain, was more concerned about Gold's well-being than freaking Professor Oak? I think it's hilarious. Oak was never worried that he hadn't heard from Red for a month during the Yellow chapter, either. Silly senile old man. Methinks PokeNation needs to crack down on its child safety laws.

Lol, you actually forgot some of the plotlines. How about Bill and Daisy? Or Gold chasing the Masked Man to Ilex Forest? Or the freaking Radio Director and whatever the heck he was doing at the time. Seriously, why should I care what such an insignificant character with no name is doing, especially when he's not doing anything another character could've just as easily given to the storyline? Useless. My favorite (except not) part though was when Gold destroyed the Masked Man's mask. We then immediately turn to Whitney and Morty figuring out his identity on their own. Then we switch to Crystal, Eusine, Misty and co. and whatever they were doing at the time (I can't remember), then to possibly something else, and THEN it's revealed to us that Pryce was the Masked Man, as if it was so hard to figure out anyway given the large number of clues thrown at us beforehand.

So that's pretty much my earlier GSC climax rant condensed down. On a more positive note, I did enjoy the gym leader tournament. I just wish Gold and Crystal had had more panel time during that part of the arc.

That would actually be a lot better than what we got.

Lol, I didn't actually forget Gold chasing the Masked Man, because that was after what I had mentioned.

LMAO at your Oak rant. But I guess you're right.

Originally Posted by Weedy Spyze

That would've been interesting.

Yes, it would. But as I said, I think Suicune had made his choice immediately after the battle with Crystal, when it decided to keep her earring with him at all times.

Originally Posted by Weedy Spyze

Yeah, RS had a lot of characters running around as well, but I never thought that Ruby and Sapphire's screen time was really sacrificed for it, unlike the Johto gang in their arc. So it doesn't annoy me nearly as much...or at all, actually. Really my only beef with characters in the RS arc was Tate and Liza's very minor roles. They should've been battling Groudon and Kyogre with all of the other gym leaders imo, instead of being shipped off to Mirage Island with Juan (although I did like his role ftr).

I actually didn't have any problems in the RS arc. It would be nice to see Tate & Liza fighting the ancient Pokémon, but I don't see how that could happen, given what happened to them at Mt. Pyre.

Contact me here or in those sites to keep me motivated for this fic. Several chapters are already concluded, but there's still a LONG way to go. I want to be sure I'll finish this thing before I start publishing it.

Lol, I didn't actually forget Gold chasing the Masked Man, because that was after what I had mentioned.

LMAO at your Oak rant. But I guess you're right.

I actually didn't have any problems in the RS arc. It would be nice to see Tate & Liza fighting the ancient Pokémon, but I don't see how that could happen, given what happened to them at Mt. Pyre.

Absolutely, I don't know why I didn't think of it earlier. Or more importantly, I don't know why the writer didn't think of it at all. If the Johto dex holder meetup had happened a volume sooner, we could've clipped off that stupid boring Suicune filler subplot to a bare minimum, and instead could've gotten a small arc where Gold and Crystal travel together, get to know each other, and actually maybe develop some damn chemistry together. Instead of just being thrown together by Oak to go do some mission there was absolutely no build up to. And Gold and Silver would've gotten some more deserved panel time. Everybody wins!

Well actually, Green and Silver battling Will and Karen happened after Gold chased after the Masked Man. So since you mentioned that, I assume you forgot that point.

Oak is such a nut in this manga. I agree with whoever said he was overrated.

Oh, well I would've omitted that part entirely actually. What happened at Mt. Pyre because Tate & Liza were there? The orbs were stolen. What would've happened if they weren't there? The orbs would've still been stolen. They were completely flat characters in the manga, and I think it would've been more interesting if they had just met up with the other gym leaders at Flannery's conference. We could've had Tate side with Team Aqua, and Liza side with Team Magma, or vice versa. Yay, more conflict. <3

I'm just going to say it right now that development can be overrated. Personally, as long as the character is fun to watch and has interesting quirks, they don't necessarily need to be terribly flawed, morally ambiguous or go through major arcs.

Also just because a character is meant to "be evil", it doesn't mean he's a bad character. Yeah, having a complex villain is all well and good, but in real life... sometimes people are just cruel and sadistic... because. Not every single bad guy needs some "horrid past" or some "grand plan". Sometimes is nice to have a antagonist﻿ with a clear goal.